India’s Siddi Community: Getting Ready For Olympics 2024

According to the Indian pledge “All Indians are my brothers and sisters…” we should all be protective towards every single Indian Citizen. Then why some communities in this country are being neglected, discriminated and abused. Along with all the current issues running in this country, we have one major issue stapling around; the community of the Siddi. The Siddis have been in this country since 628 A.D. are being avoided and insulted constantly. But now, they are quite determined to remove that local gap once and for all.

Firstly, we need to know how did an African community end up in this country and what are they doing now?

1. Well, they left their homeland back in 7th Century and came to the Indian Subcontinent and settle here. They have various name and they were known as Siddi, Habshi or Makrani; descendants of the Southeast African community Bantu.

2. Some came in as slaves by all those historical traders, merchants, sailors and mercenaries to this land. The community of Siddis is spread across India in Gujarat, Hyderabad, and Karnataka. More than 20,000-55,000 Siddis are living in this country at present.

3. They are all of different religion which exist in this country and they have well accepted the culture of the nation as well.

4. In 1987, Sports Authority of India started the Special Area Games Scheme, they were training the Indian African Community to compete on National And International Levels. But in 1993, the program was cancelled.

5. Now, the first batch of athletes is getting trained in Karnataka by the former Indian African Athletes for the Olympics 2024.

My question is, why no one stood up for them when this community was in our country for such a long time. Why are they still hated and discriminated? If we can continue the legacy of mughals, nawabs, Portuguese, Britishers and many more foreign communities then why is this community which can bring name and fame to our country at any given platform is still being avoided. My stand is with them, and I urge that you all should wish our Siddi brothers and sisters to achieve what other brother and sisters haven’t done yet.